KENTUCKY: A History of the State, Battle, Perrin, & Kniffin, 4th ed.,
1887 Mercer Co.
DR. CHARLES HARVEY SPILMAN, of Harrodsburg, is one of the oldest and
best known of Kentucky's early physicians, and for a period of fifty-
two years has devoted himself assiduously to the practice of his
profession. He was born in Garrard County, Ky., May 20, 1805, of
English parentage. His father was Benjamin Spilman and his mother
Nancy R., daughter of James Rice, of Virginia, and cousin of Parson
Rice, a pioneer preacher of Kentucky, and of Rev. Nathaniel L. Rice,
D.D., of Danville. He is a lineal descendant of Henricus Spelmannus,
the original ancestor of the family, who was knighted in England and
came to America at an early day. Dr. Spilman received a thorough
classical education at Centre College, Danville, then under the
presidency of Gideon Blackburn, and subsequently pursued his medical
studies at Transylvania University, Lexington, Ky., from which
institution he was graduated with the degree of M.D., March 1, 1835.
While in attendance at the university he enjoyed the benefits of
private instruction under Dr. Benjamin W. Dudley, then one of the most
distinguished surgeons of the West. Previous to his graduation he spent
several years, from 1832 to 1835, at Yazoo City, Miss., in the practice
of his profession on a special license issued after examination by the
Eastern Medical Board. April 9, 1835, he married Miss Mary Duryea
Skillman, a native of Freehold, N.J., and a representative of one of
the oldest and most prominent families of that commonwealth, and in May
of the following year located in practice at Nicholasville, Jessamine
Co., Ky., in which county he remained for a period of fifteen years.
In January, 1850, he removed to Harrodsburg, Ky., where he is still, at
the ripe age of eighty-two years, engaged in practice. Dr. Spilman has
never limited his efforts to any special branch of medical science, but
has always been a general practitioner. He was elected a member of the
American Medical association in 1850, and, on several occasions has
been a delegate to the annual conventions of that body. He became a
member of the Kentucky State Medical Society in 1851 and served as its
president from 1854 to 1856. During the winter of 1854, by appointment
of that society, he addressed the Legislature of the State on the
"Relations and Reciprocal Obligations of Medicine and the State," the
object being to get an appropriation to cover the expense of publishing
the proceedings of the State society. Dr. Spilman is also a member of
the Central Kentucky Medical association and served as its first
president in 1872. He has also frequently acted as president at the
sessions of the Mercer County Medical Society. He never has taken any
active part in politics, although at first a Whig and then a
Republican. During the civil war he continued his work, oftentimes amid
scenes of carnage and bloodshed, administered alike to those who wore
blue and those who wore the gray, and being earnestly in sympathy with
the Union cause. While much of Dr. Spilman's time has necessarily been
taken up in the laborious pursuit of an extensive general practice he
has still found time to enrich the literature of the profession by many
able contributions on various topics of interest, and for many years
wrote for publication in the current periodicals of the day an average
of two essays each month. Among the topics embraced in these
contributions mention may be made of the following: "Report on
Indigenous Botany," contained in the transactions of the Kentucky State
Medical Society for 1852; "Suits for Malpractice," in the Medical News,
Louisville, in 1856; "Bloodletting Then and Now," in the Medical and
Surgical Reporter, 1868; "Metastatic Diversion of Labor," ibid., 1867;
"Boldness and Timidity in Practice Contrasted," Repertory, Cincinnati,
1868; "Bloodletting as a Therapeutic Agent," Richmond and Louisville
Medical Journal, 1869; "Myelitis Spinalis," Medical and Surgical
Reporter, 1870; "A Popular Physiological Fallacy," Repertory,
Cincinnati, 1870; "Patent Medicine and Quack Remedies," ibid., 1871;
"Therapeutic Action of Mercury," Richmond and Louisville Medical
Journal, 1873; "Embolism," ibid., 1874, and "Pudendal Hernia," ibid.,
1875. A careful examination of these subjects will demonstrate, even
to the unprofessional reader, how earnest, energetic and industrious
Dr. Spilman must have been in his profession and how comprehensive and
thorough his study and investigation. Dr. Spilman is one of the oldest
residents of Mercer County and aside from his professional relations to
that community has always performed the full duty of a useful and
honored citizen and done all that he could to promote the spiritual and
moral welfare of the section in which he has spent his life. He is an
elder in the Assembly Presbyterian Church of Harrodsburg, enjoys the
confidence and respect of the citizens of that place, and is regarded
as an upright and valuable member of the community. Though he has long
passed the allotted limitation of life of which the Psalmist sung, he
is still well preserved in the possession of all his faculties and
mentally alert and active. Much of his leisure time has been devoted
to music, of which he is an ardent lover, and in singing of which he
has always excelled. Of his large family of children but few now
survive. John T. was a practicing lawyer at Harrodsburg during his
lifetime; Abraham T. was a clergyman of the Presbyterian Church, and
officiated at Paint Lick, Garrard County; Benjamin is a photographer at
Harrodsburg, and his daughter, Mary Frances, became the wife of Clarence
Anderson, of Hopkinsville, Ky.; his daughter, Elizabeth A. Spilman,
married William Alexander and left two daughters and a son, who,
together with a son of his deceased son, John T. Spilman, now reside
with their grandfather.
Spilman Rice Spelmannus Blackburn Dudley Skillman Anderson Alexander
=
Garrard-KY Nicholasville-Jessamine-KY MS NJ VA England
http://www.rootsweb.com/~kygenweb/kybiog/mercer/spilman.ch.txt